


Feelings

by buddyroll



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, F/M, I Blame Tumblr, I'm Sorry, M/M, because i'm feeling moody, i'm bad at tagging and i need to go to bed, it's a sad one folks, ughh my emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 03:38:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10235042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buddyroll/pseuds/buddyroll
Summary: Rhett confesses his feelings for the brunet when Link's prying becomes too much.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I want you  
> Yeah I want you  
> And nothing comes close  
> To the way that I need you  
> I wish I can feel your skin  
> And I want you  
> From somewhere within
> 
> It feels like there's oceans between you and me once again
> 
> Oceans -- Seafret

“Oh. So… that’s all, then?”

The fall breeze whipped against Rhett’s pronounced cheekbones as he stood at Jaimie’s front door, breaking the news to her in a rather harsh way.

“Yeah,” he answered, running his hand through his close-cropped blond hair. “I prob’ly shoulda said somethin’ to you sooner… since the dance is next weekend ‘nd everything… but I just don’t think this is working out for me.”

“You already said that, Rhett.”

The tall boy shifted uncomfortably in the presence of his now former girlfriend. He was never any when it came to talking about feelings.

“S-sorry,” he stuttered, clearly distracted. “I just have somethin’ else on my mind.” Rhett looked down at his feet and took a deep breath in. He wormed his right pinky toe through what was becoming a decent-sized hole in his worn tennis shoe.

Jaimie threw the boy a sympathetic look, and it took only a second for her to take it back. “Well, I needn't concern myself with your affairs. You decided that we’re done. Thanks for sparing your own feelings and not mine,” she said snarkily. “G’bye, Rhett.”

The door closed on the blond, but he stood on the porch of the ranch for a moment longer. He tugged his jacket sleeves down, the fabric too short on his lengthy arms as the evening cooled, and he let out a sigh of exhaustion.

“G’bye, Jaimie.”

···

“How’s your girlfriend?” Link broke the silence as he and Rhett walked into the older boy’s bedroom after school.

“What girlfriend? I dumped her.” The blond was feeling particularly moody today, and he wasn't entirely enthusiastic about Link’s typical pushy, prying attitude.

“Wait… when did you break up with her? Y’all were together yesterday, so… last night? And why did you say you broke up, exactly?”

He rolled his eyes at the younger boy. “I didn't say. And it’s ‘cuz of ‘nunya’.”

“ _‘Nunya’_? What’s ‘nunya’?”

The tall boy couldn't help but smirk. “Nunya business, buddyroll.”

The brunet brushed off the comment and sat down next to the older boy. “You can tell me what you’re goin’ through, brother. You know I ain't gon’ judge you.”

Rhett choked out a short, bitter laugh.

“Let’s not talk ‘bout our feelings, _Benvolio_.”

“Look, I get that you wanna be alone-- ”

“Do you? Do you really, Link? Because I don’t see you gettin’ up and walkin’ outta he-- ”

“Dammit, Rhett, why do you have to be so goddamned difficult all the time?! Why can’t we have a _normal_ conversation for once? You’re always bein’ such a hypocrite; ‘Link, don’t be so antisocial’, and, ‘Link, you can talk to me about anythin’.

“Well you know what, Rhett? I don't wanna tell you shit if you're not gonna open up to me when all I’m tryin’ to do is make you feel better. You always wanna be ‘Mr. Perfect’. You're so goddamned caught up in tryin’ to please everyone else that you never give other people a chance to help you, and guess what? I’m sick of it!”

Link’s tone softened but he continued to hold his glare against the older boy.

“Look: I don't know what’s goin’ on with you, man, but you’re sure not actin’ like you're my best friend. I get that you’re feelings are hurt… but you're hurtin’ mine more by shuttin’ me out, and if me straight up telling you can’t make you see that… then I don't know what will.”

At this point Rhett had his back turned on the smaller boy, his chin resting upon the upturned heels of his hands as his elbows poked into his drawn up knees.

_What am I doin’?_

_“Fine._ You wanna know what’s on my mind, what I’m thinkin’ ‘bout twenty-four seven?”

The smaller boy threw his hands up at the statement. “Well, duh!” he cried, waiting for Rhett to continue.

“Link,” the blond began slowly, more tentative than nonchalant, his back still turned, “Have you ever been so in love with someone that at the same time, you were scared they would leave you?”

“That’s how you felt about Jaimie,” Link stated matter-of-factly, assuming that he had correctly finished Rhett’s thought. “That’s why you broke up with her.”

The blond turned to face the other boy.

Rhett started again, this time with a waver in his speech. “Actually, no… I broke up with her because I… I like…”

It was so hard to say what he wanted to, what with the way Link was looking at him in anticipation, waiting for him to spit it out.

“... I like you, Link.”

The younger boy sat there for second, a dumbfounded look on his face as Rhett stared into his soft, icy blue eyes, hoping the boy would reciprocate his own repressed feelings.

Suddenly Link laughed.

“You’re messin’ with me, ain’t you, Rhett?”

Stunned, the blond opened his mouth to answer, but no sound came out. He could feel his face turning color, a burning fire as it reddened into a deep shade of pink.

“I…uh…”

Link laughed again, a shorter one that caught in his Adam’s apple, nervousness creeping up the back of his throat like bile and making the noise sound vulnerable and unsteady.

“Ain’t you, Rhett?”

“No… why- why would I joke about…” Rhett’s voice trailed off into a whisper so quiet he felt as though he were caught in a dimension between reality and non-existence.

“...No, Link…

… _I mean it._ ”

The brunet looked up into his grey irises, stumbling over his words. Slowly, he shook his head, seemingly angry with Rhett; it was an emotion the blond rarely, if ever, saw from him, pure… disgust... and it was all he could do not to cry.

“I don’t feel the same.”

By the way Link looked at him, Rhett’d known they were coming, and yet the five words blistered on his heart like a hot dog left far too long in a vat of boiling water.

“Look… I’m sorry I pried… you were right. I just… I can’t, Rhett. I just don’t feel the same.”

Link stood up and tripped over his bookbag, flustered and more disoriented than usual. He stood again and lifted the heavy bag from his feet, grabbing hold of the bedpost so as to balance himself, and took one last glance at Rhett before opening the door and spilling into the hallway.

As Link made his way down the stairs, Rhett sat in the corner of his room and listened to the screen door swing open and slam shut as the brunet hurried out of the house.

Physically, it held true that the blond was taller than the other boy, but it hurt him to see that Link reacted as though he’d contracted some rare disease from Rhett’s emotions, and he burrowed into himself, a hermit crab in a shell much too big for his enjoyment. Never in his life had he felt so small in comparison to Link, and never in his life had he hated the brunet's pushiness to an extent where he felt so distant from him.

He half-heartedly peeled back the mini-blind and peered longingly out the window, watching Link as he made his way around the blued Dodge Dynasty parked on the gravel driveway. The tears he’d been holding back began to roll quietly down his face, leaving a glistening trail on his cheeks.

_What the hell’d I do to our friendship?_

Rhett was exhausted, and he hated Link for being so nosy, and he hated himself for giving in and opening up to the younger boy’s stern request.

 

Because _damn,_ he was never any good when it came to feelings.


End file.
